IEEE Computer Society members recently selected James D. Isaak of Southern New Hampshire University to serve as the Society's president-elect for 2009.

Isaak is currently completing a three-year term on the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors. He is chair of the IEEE Computer Society IT Strategy Committee, a member of the IEEE USA Committee on Communications and Information Policy, and a member of the Standards Association Board of Governors. Isaak holds US Patent 6,662,247 "for certifying the authenticity of digital objects" and spent 30 years in industry at companies including DEC, Charles River Data Systems, and Intel.

Candidates elected to the Computer Society presidency serve a three-year term in a leadership role. After serving a year as president-elect under 2010 president Susan (Kathy) Land, CSDP, Isaak will assume the duties of Society president in 2009. Following his term as president, Isaak will continue to be an active Society leader in 2011 as past president.

Leaders Serve Members

Each year, Society members vote for the next year's president-elect, first and second vice presidents, and seven members of the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors. The Society president and vice presidents each serve a one-year active term, while the 21 Board of Governors members serve three-year terms, rotating in three groups of seven.

The three presidents—incoming, active, and outgoing—work together in setting policy and making operational decisions. The active Society president is responsible for heading three annual Board of Governors meetings and for addressing major issues that affect the Computer Society during the year.

New Vice Presidents Elected

John W. Walz, recently retired from AT&T/Lucent, was elected 2009 first vice president, while Alan Clements, of the UK's University of Teesside, topped the balloting for 2009 second vice president. Each will serve as chair of one of the several Computer Society boards. The sitting president also appoints vice presidents to complement the two elected VPs as leaders of individual Society boards: Chapters Activities, Educational Activities, Electronic Products and Services, Publications, Standards Activities, and Technical and Conference Activities.

The appointed Society vice presidents also serve as nonvoting members of the Board of Governors. Holding voting positions on the Board are the president, past president, president-elect, and the first and second vice presidents. Additional nonvoting members are the Society's staff executive director, Computer's editor in chief, and the IEEE directors for divisions V and VIII—the Computer Society's elected representatives on the IEEE Board of Governors.

Board of Governors Adds Seven New Members

In the 2008 Society election, which closed in early October, voters also cast ballots to fill the seven openings on the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors. Members chosen for 2009–2011 terms are Elisa Bertino, George V. Cybenko, Ann DeMarle, David S. Ebert, David Alan Grier, Hironori Kasahara, and Steven L. Tanimoto. Many of the successful candidates have had recent Computer Society Board of Governors and leadership experience.

Elected officers volunteer their time and talents to further the Society's goals and to elevate the profile of the computing profession in general. Society officers take a lead role in promoting new publications, educational efforts, technical focus groups, and international standards that help Computer Society members attain career goals.

The Computer Society mailed 68,830 ballots to members in the 2008 election. Of the 8,300 ballots cast—a return rate of 12.06 percent—5,757 were submitted via the Web and 2,543 were submitted in paper form. Table 1 shows the breakdown of votes cast for each officer. The full ballot for the 2008 election also included the candidates listed in Table 2.

Table 1. These new officers will begin serving the IEEE Computer Society on 1 January 2009.

Table 2. The full ballot for the 2008 election also included the following candidates.

Nominate A Candidate

Any Computer Society member can nominate candidates for Society offices. Most members are also eligible to run for a seat on the Board of Governors. Candidates for other offices must be full members of the IEEE and must have been members of the Computer Society for at least the preceding three years.

See www.computer.org/election for more details on the 2008 IEEE Computer Society elections.

Pedro Ray Chosen as IEEE President-Elect for 2009

Pedro Ray was named Puerto Rico's Electrical Engineer of the Year in 2000.

IEEE members recently selected Pedro Ray as their president-elect for 2009. Ray is a licensed professional engineer and the recipient of the IEEE Power Engineering Society's 2005 Outstanding Engineer Award.

Ray will serve one year as IEEE president-elect, participating in Board of Directors activities. He will then assume the role of president in the following year. After his term in 2010, Ray will serve as past president in 2011.

In the same election, IEEE members chose 2007 Computer Society president Michael R. Williams as division V director-elect for 2009. Williams served as editor in chief of IEEE Annals between 1996 and 1999 and was named an IEEE Computer Society Golden Core member in 2005.

Division directors represent IEEE societies on the IEEE Board of Directors and Technical Activities Board. Directors for divisions V and VIII are elected to represent the Computer Society membership. Williams will act as director-elect in 2009 and as division director for 2010–2011. The division directors also serve as ex officio members of the Computer Society's Board of Governors and Executive Committee.